From January 29th until February 3rd we were on tour. Here are is a short review on how it went.
We have been in Paris, Saarbrücken, Munich, Dresden and Mannheim and played in very, very different locations there. Since the room in which you play is an important part of the concert and everything was there, from the concert hall in the castle to the renowned jazz club to the independent club in the former electronics store, each evening there were different conditions from which different music was created.
At the Pan Piper in Paris we have started on January 29th. There we played a double concert with another of Franck's ensembles. He has just released a record with Quatuor Debussy, which was presented that evening. At the end we played a piece together, which was a special honor for me because this string quartet is truly phenomenal. Admittedly, I was a little nervous! :-)
It was a wonderful evening in front of a full house with a great audience. I was able to get to know a lot of nice people and meet a lot of colleagues -what a pleasure!
Afterwards the journey continued to Saarbrücken, where we played in the beautiful ballroom of the castle. The SR can also passed by and recorded the concert. The recording and the interview with Peter Kleiss will be released on March 3rd from 8 p.m.
The next stop was the Unterfahrt jazz club in Munich. It's always a great pleasure to play there. The greatest musicians give each other a hand there, which always makes me proud to be able to be a part of it. Uli Habersetzer from BR came by in Munich and recorded and had an interview with me. That was very pleasant. It's so nice when people you're talking to are so passionate about what they do! You can listen to this concert on June 14th. from 11:05 p.m.
The following day we went to Mannheim, a home game in front of many friends and acquaintances. I love Laboratorio 17, where Steffen Rosskopf runs his “Jazz in the Bush” series, because this shop defies classification. Good music is performed there with few resources. Go check it out if you don't know it yet!
Our tour ended in Dresden. There we played in the renowned jazz club Tonne. It was my first time there and I was very fascinated by how beautiful this club is. You should definitely all go there! Thanks to Steffen Wilde and his team - it was a very nice evening and we look forward to the next opportunity to come by!
Now I'm full of energy and excited for everything that's to come.
You'll find out soon! Many greetings and see you soon!
PS: We traveled entirely by train. I managed to get to Paris despite the strike (okay, I had to drive to Strasbourg...) and everything else always worked out. The expected chaos did not happen. Yes, well... once we actually had to run when changing trains (thanks Franck for your superhuman efforts while running with the baritone saxophone - I still feel bad ;-) ), a train canceled, but the next one left 14 minutes later.. By DB standards, everything was above average. Taking the train is just so much better than taking the car - I can hardly imagine it on a tour like this. But I also know that sometimes this is a luxury and in this case it was only possible because there were so many nice people who provided vibraphones.
Thank you Peter and Elfi Kleiss, Martin Frink, Steffen Wilde and Jens Knoop!